The European Central Bank left its quantitative-easing program unchanged as policy makers wait to see if a pickup in inflation will be sustained.

The Governing Council reaffirmed its December decision that asset purchases will be reduced to 60 billion euros ($64 billion) a month from April, from 80 billion euros currently. Policy makers also kept the main refinancing rate at zero and the deposit rate at minus 0.4 percent, as predicted by all economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The first policy decision of 2017 comes six weeks after Draghi declared the threat of deflation to be almost vanquished. Price growth in the region is starting to accelerate after almost four years of undershooting the ECB's goal, and in a sign that sentiment is gradually changing, Executive Board member Benoit Coeure acknowledged last month that the balance of risks to inflation is shifting.